cell phone

Food Cart Raided After Passengers are Stranded

July 2, 2011

in Delay Stories

While not as hellish as some of the other stories here, I did have a miserable flight.

Flew from Dulles to Logan one weekend a few years ago for the high school reunion. Normally, the flight is a tad bit over an hour, so I foolishly assumed that a 2:30pm flight with no checked in luggage would allow me to get to the kick-off dinner which started at 7pm with no problems. (Insert laughter here.)

We taxied out to the runway, just to be pulled over to the side due to some computer issue. Sat there for an hour; they wheeled us back to the terminal, but wouldn’t let anyone off the plane. We sat at least another hour. Roughly around 5pm the flight attendants were told that they had to leave the plane, but the passengers had to stay on.

Did anyone really think it was that smart to leave a bunch of less than unhappy people (most of whom probably would have reached their final Boston destination) alone on a plane that seemed like it was going nowhere?Those with cell phones were trying to see if they could get other flights. Everything seemed to either have already left, or was fully booked.

At one point one of the passengers raided the food truck to see if there was food and passed out whatever liquids she could get her hands on. No food to be found. However, several people happily took the little wine bottles.

Maybe 30 minutes later a new flight crew came onboard. Wisely, they didn’t say anything about the raided food cart and someone found some energy bars which got passed out to people. Around 6:30 we finally got into the air. My new captain could not stop apologizing.

I think that the biggest kicker for me (not that she gave me any reason to complain), was my neighbor on the flight told whoever she was talking to on her phone, “I have HAD to be on my cell this whole time.” Conference call? Nope. Clearly the latest gossip in her life.

No idea who missed connections, I was just glad to be off that plane so I didn’t bother to see if I could get some compensation for the miserable trip. Fortunately the flight back was without any event.

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Tagged as: alcohol, cell phone, delay & cancellation

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Self-Important Commuter

March 17, 2011

in Passenger Stories

This might not have been a flight from hell for the passengers, but it sure was for the service reps who had the misfortune of being on the service desk this inconvenient morning.

I do a weekly cattle haul to Toronto out of Newark Airport and have been doing it for some time with a number of others that do the same trek. Early morning is usually a zoo and in most cases the flight gets out within a reasonable time, so you make the best of it. Well, recently the 6:40 was on the runway when the pilot decided to go back to the gate because of a problem. We get back to the gate and are told to disembark so the techs and mechanics can see what the problem is and determine if the plane gets a fix or we get another plane. Okay, the passengers are not too happy (me included), but you just kind of bite your lip and hope for the best.

Then a self-important dweeb glued to his iPhone marches up to the service desk and insists that they take his one piece of luggage out of the hold so he can go on the next flight. Picture going through luggage for 70+ passengers (gate check and check in) to get dweeb’s bag. The first rep politely explains the situation but to no avail. The dweeb loudly whines while texting away and telling the rep that the email he just received said it was doable so they must accommodate him. He gets another negative so what does he do? Go to the next rep. Same story and what does he do? Go to the gate agent. So this jerk thinks that 70+ pieces of luggage should be unloaded for his one piece so he can get on the next flight ahead of everyone else, which would also delay the next flight. He didn’t stop whining about his meetings etc, which was the situation most of us were in.

So we finally get on board and it’s about 8:30. I’m in my seat and I see this guy lecture the attendants as well as the pilot that he should have been able to remove his luggage. What the hell is wrong with some people? Well, it wasn’t a flight from hell for me and most others, but it sure was for the unfortunate folks that were in this self-important idiot’s line of verbal fire.

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Tagged as: baggage, cell phone

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FAs Ignore Cell Phone Conversation

August 4, 2010

in Passenger Stories

I lived for 6 months in Kazakhstan last year. Not the one from the movie Borat, but in the original country. In spring 2009, I flew from Astana to Almaty on board Air Astana. Air Astana is the international operating and biggest airline of the country.

A 30-year-old woman was sitting on my left in a window seat. Two stewards were sitting with their face to us two seats in front of us in the companion seats. Then, a few seconds before the touchdown, the lady’s mobile phone started to ring. She took it calmly out of her handbag and started to speak with the caller. And she had to speak really loudly, because the landing procedure was really noisy. The two stewards just looked at her for a second and then continued their conversation.

I got really confused and upset and asked them why they didn’t intervene because use of a mobile is really dangerous, especially during the landing process.

They said: “Sir, sorry, but by the time we tell her not to use the cellphone and when she shuts it off, we will be at the terminal. It’s not worth the trouble. And she is the sister of the captain.”

Well, what more to say? Now I live in Germany again.

- Baris C., Frankfurt

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Tagged as: air astana, cell phone, pilot

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Theft On A Plane

February 10, 2010

in Passenger Stories

I was on a flight from Florida to Tennessee, returning home from a vacation. A lady a few seats back got settled in, then got up to do something, came back, and her cell phone (which she’d left on her seat) was missing. A stewardess noticed her searching all around on the floor for it, asked what was up, and she told her she’d lost her pink RAZR cell phone. As the last few people got onto the plane, the stewardess and the lady failed to locate the phone and the stewardess then verbally announced that a pink phone had been lost and could people please check the floor and area around them. Nothing.

The search continued a bit longer before the stewardess went up front. The captain got on the intercom and announced that a pink cell phone had been misplaced and that if someone found it to please bring it forward. After waiting about 10 minutes with no cell phone appearing, the captain announced that the plane would not be leaving until the phone was found, suggested that the phone either be returned, nudged out into the aisle, or left in the bathroom–and that if it didn’t appear, federal marshals would come aboard to search for it. The phone still didn’t appear.

Then federal marshals did appear at the front of the cabin. A person near the tail end of the plane summoned a stewardess and claimed to have picked up the phone off the lady’s empty seat earlier thinking that it’d been lost and he was just going to return it later–and hadn’t been paying attention to all the announcements and people looking around on the floor because he was listening to his iPod at an extremely high volume.

Apparently that story wasn’t a very good one, as both he and his lady friend were promptly escorted off the plane by the marshals. The plane left without them, but the duo managed to delay the scheduled departure time by 30 minutes.

I can’t help but think that a charge of petty theft was escalated into a federal offense for interfering with a flight.

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Tagged as: cell phone, delay & cancellation, flight attendant, media player, pilot, police, theft

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The Case Of The Creepy Seatmate

January 10, 2010 Passenger Stories

[Mature content] Not too long ago I was traveling home off-duty from my job as a flight attendant from Atlanta, Georgia to Cleveland, Ohio after visiting with my fiance. This was the last flight of the night and being that I was exhausted after a busy trip; I was just looking to relax and sleep [...]

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FA Fails To Communicate

January 7, 2010 Attendant & Pilot Stories

There is a certain nationally known advocate for the deaf who frequently travels the country giving lectures on behalf of deaf awareness and bridging the gap between hearing people and the deaf community. On a recent trip she was sitting in her seat writing emails on her Blackberry waiting for departure. The flight attendants gave [...]

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Some Things Just Don’t Change (Except For Better Wireless Service)

December 30, 2009 Delay Stories

I took my three children from Idaho to Virginia with a change of planes in New Jersey. The first leg of the trip was fine. In New Jersey, there were flight delays due to rain. There wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit down and it was very crowded. One man seemed to think it [...]

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They Lost My Son!

November 24, 2009 Odds & Ends Stories

My son flew from New England to North Carolina on Continental. He was 13 at the time. I paid $15.00 to book the flight by phone (you can’t do it online) and $100.00 extra for Continental to take him on and off the plane.  When the plane landed in NC, my son did as he [...]

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Student’s Grueling Trip Home

November 23, 2009 Delay Stories

Two years ago I was applying to graduate schools on the east coast. I had an interview at the University of Connecticut and had flown in from Michigan the night before. I chose to leave a day early and pay for a hotel just in case there were delays and whatnot as it was still [...]

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Cell Phone Conflict

October 19, 2009 Attendant & Pilot Stories

I was flying US Air, going home to Seattle from Atlanta for Thanksgiving. First of all I’m already mad that I have to pay $15 to check my bag. Now I am playing video games on my Cell Phone which has the option to shut the phone and wireless off and just use the computer portion [...]

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